Along one of the walls of the American Treasure Tour's Toy Box is a collection of painting dedicated to telling the story of the Circus Sideshow. We could (and may, one day) spend months going through each of the paintings and the stories behind them all, but at least three images are dedicated to the art of tattooing, and the one we are talking about today deals with the stunning and controversial world of ... women with tattoos!

As recently as one hundred years ago, tattoos were associated with the lowest possible class of people, such that some jurisdictions outlawed the showing of body art in public. A woman with tattoos was, to put it nicely, considered eccentric. She was almost certainly regarded as "loose" or seedy, and the only place she might get away with displaying them would have been at the circus sideshow! Groucho Marx's song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" was a humorous expression of acceptance of this little-seen culture. That aired in the 1939 film At the Circus. By the 1960s, members of the counter-culture, like the hippies, used tattoos as a form of self-expression and rebellion. They have since become so mainstream that a sign like ours, advertising the tattooed girl, seems not only sexist but also completely outdated!QUESTION: Which of the following feats is not included in Lydia's tattoos?A) The Battle of WaterlooB) Washington Crossing the DelawareC) Nelson's Victory at TrafalgarD) Captain Spaulding Exploring the AmazonANSWER BELOW

FIRST THE ATLANTIC... On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh made history by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in his airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis. Much less well known, but no less significant, on this day in 1927 another important aviation milestone was reached when the Fokker tri-motor airplane Bird Of Paradise successfully flew from California to Hawaii. Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger, two members of the U.S. Army Air Corps, risked it all in wht had to be a flawlessly executed flight. If they were even remotely off on their navigational coordinates, they would most certainly have disappeared in the ocean depths.

I'M BUSEY! Gary Busey turns 71 today. Known for some well-regarded performances in the 1970s, including 1974's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Buddy Holly Story in 1978, as well as the second installment in the Lethal Weapon franchise (1987), Busey is now probably more recognizable for just being Gary Busey. He has become quite a colorful character in his later years, going so far as to have a reality show on Comedy Central revolve around him, called "I'm With Busey," which aired in 2003.